After checking out the Unicaja-Olympiacos match and witnessing yet another stellar performance from my compatriot Josh Childress, i was moved enough, as all sports-worshiping Americans eventually do at some point in our lives, to whip off an email to The Sports Guy, ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons. Since he’ll never publish it, we’ll run it here, too.
Dear Bill,
I live in Budapest, where I’m able to catch quite a few Euroleague basketball games. I’m sure you haven’t kept close track of Josh Childress’ progress with Greek team Olympiacos, so I thought you might appreciate a brief update on Childress in his first year of that three-year, $20 million contract.
This week, Olympiacos lost a close one in Unijaca in which Childress contributed 3-of-9 shooting for seven points (his fourth Euroleague game of seven in which he scored fewer than 10) and seven rebounds, and it looked even worse.
Childress first helped fuel a comeback for Unijaca at the end of the first half by consistently awkwardly driving to the basket while flailing about in hopes of drawing a shooting foul; unfortunately, his efforts to draw fouls were in vain, resulting in Childress’ Olympiacos shedding six points in short time and took just a five-point lead into the half.
In the fourth quarter, Childress assisted a momentum shift to Unijaca in the fourth quarter by alternating far-off jumpers with getting poor position underneath against guys like Jiri Welsch and Carlos Jimenez. Naturally, his teammates keep feeding him the ball despite the fact that he thinks he’s still playing with the Atlanta Hawks because, well, he’s Josh Childress.
To cap it all off, with his team down by two with 33 seconds and four on the shot clock, Childress took a guarded, off-balance jumper at the three-point line, not even trying to create space after getting the pass once again because, well, you know.
In summation, you know in Europe, we got the same shit over here as in America, it’s just a little different. In Europe, they’ve got the Ewing theory, they just call it Le Ewing Theory.
Yours,
Os Davis
